Alonso Fernandez de Madrigal

Alonso Fernández de Madrigal, known as el Tostado or el Abulense (Madrigal de las Altas Torres, Ávila, circa 1410-Bonilla de la Sierra, Ávila, September 3, 1455) was a Spanish clergyman, academic and writer, Bishop of Ávila (1454 - 1455), successor of Bishop Alonso I of Fonseca (1445-1454) when he became Archbishop of Seville in February 1454.

Biography

Son of Alfonso Tostado and Isabel de Ribera, he studied Arts, Theology and Law at the University of Salamanca, was a college student, and later rector, of the Colegio Mayor de San Bartolomé de Salamanca. He graduated as Master of Arts and Theology and obtained a bachelor's degree from the Faculty of Law. He ran the Chair of Arts and Moral Philosophy before 1436; he also that of Poetry when he was a teacher. He surely replaced Guillermo de Murcia in 1440 in the chair of Bible, which he would perhaps obtain in ownership towards the autumn of 1441; he was already a professor of theology before June 1443. he knew Latin, Greek and Hebrew.

He traveled to Italy around 1442 commissioned by King John II to attend the Council of Basel and defend the conciliarist doctrine or the superiority of the council over the pope, but he did not go beyond Italy, since in 1443 he presented 21 propositions in Siena before Pope Eugenio IV and three of them displeased the pontiff, who entrusted the Spanish cardinal Juan de Torquemada, a prolific Thomist theologian, with his refutation, which he did not achieve.

Despite having entered the Cartuja, when he returned to Tarragona in 1444, Juan II named him his adviser and in Salamanca he was appointed maestrescuela in January 1446; a year before his death, in the year 1454, he was appointed bishop of Ávila at the behest of the king and held this chair until his death, which occurred on September 3, 1455 in Bonilla de la Sierra (Ávila).

The extent of his knowledge and how much he wrote gave rise to the proverbial phrase "to know or have written more than the Tostado." Among his disciples are Pulgar, Palencia and Ximénez de Prexano.

He is buried in the cathedral of Ávila, in a sumptuous sepulcher, the work of Vasco de la Zarza, built around 1511 at the initiative of Bishop Alonso Carrillo de Albornoz. It is a sepulcher at the same time altarpiece and altarpiece.

Literary work

Tomb of Alonso Fernández de Madrigal in the Cathedral of Ávila, work of Vasco de la Zarza

His enormous Latin work occupied fifteen large volumes in the Venetian edition published between 1507 and 1530. The bulk consists of extensive Latin commentaries on various books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Book of Ruth, 1-4 Kings, 1-2 Chronicles, and Matthew. His commentary is still unpublished Postilla Brevis in Pentateuchum. He also put his own prologues and introductions and commented on all the prologues of Saint Jerome and some of Eusebius.

Other works of his are Super Ecce virgo (Is 7,14) and De Trinitate. Particularly noteworthy are De optima politia , where he defends democracy as the optimal form of government, and De statu animarum (both from 1436) and other scriptural and moral works.

He dedicated the Book of Paradoxas (c. 1437) to the queen. Its title, inspired by another work by Cicero, has to do with the contradictions found in the denominations used in the Bible, which it resolves by applying the four meanings of medieval scholastic hermeneutics; the first is about the Virgin Mary; the second, about Jesus Christ as a lion; the third, like a lamb; the fourth, like a serpent (he lectures on emaciation, as the Marquis of Villena will also do); and the fifth, of Christ as an eagle and his ascension. Along with the biblical sources, there are other Aristotelian ones and he himself translated this extensive work into Latin.

In Defensorium trium conclusionum, he upheld the superiority of the councils over the pope. In his Breviloquio de amor e amiciçia (c.1437-1441), dedicated to King Juan II of Castile, part of the Platonic saying «when you are a friend, it is true that you are a friend of him, but for this It is not true that you are an enemy of his enemy', to expose the importance that love and friendship can play both in social life —becoming a substitute for the legal bond— and in religious life.

An anonymous Treatise on how it is necessary to love ome edited by Antonio Paz y Meliá in Opúsculos literarios de los siglos XIV al XVI] (Madrid 1892) is usually attributed to him. pp. 221-224. His works were published in Venice 1505-31, 1596, 1615, 1723, and in Cologne 1613-15.

Laurence Sterne mentions it, in Tristram Shandy's Book VI Chapter II, among other examples of child prodigies: "almost in the arms of his nurse, he learned all the liberal arts and sciences without being taught any of them."

Work

• Moral philosophy questions. It is an exhibition about moral virtues, following the second book of the Ethics to Nicomaco of Aristotle. This work was published in Biblioteca de Autores Españoles (BAE), n.o 65 (Madrid 1953)
• Short treatise of the Feasts of Medea.
• Commentary on the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius of Cesareawhich was printed in Salamanca in 1506.
• Commentary on the Treaty on the Regiment of the Princes of Egidio Colonna.
• Libellus de statu animarum post mortem (1436). It was reprinted in Antwerp in 1621.
• Treaty on the Gods of Gentileness or 14th Issueswhich was reprinted in Burgos in 1545. Follow the Genealogy of the gods by Giovanni Boccaccio.
• Libellus de optima politia (1436)
• Book of paradoxes (h. 1437)
• Breviloquio de amor e amiciçia (h. 1437-1441)

Basic bibliography

• Luciano Pereña, The system of 'El Tostado' on the Law of Gentes (1954), ed. de A. López Fonseca and J.M. Ruiz Vila, Madrid, Instituto Juan Andrés de Comparatística y Globalización, 2022.
• Gil González Dávila, Life and facts of the master Don Alonso Tostado de Madridgaed. de A. López Fonseca y J.M. Ruiz Vila, Madrid, Instituto Juan Andrés de Comparatística y Globalización, 2020.
• José de Viera y Clavijo, Elogio de Don Alonso Tostado, Bishop of Ávilaed. de A. López Fonseca y J.M. Ruiz Vila, Madrid, Instituto Juan Andrés de Comparatística y Globalización, 2019.